CYHSY's Alec Ounsworth Enlists New Orleans' Best for Solo Album

When Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Alec Ounsworth and producer Steve Berlin met up in New Orleans to record Ounsworth's solo debut, both of them agreed that they would use the city's natural resources and pull from all the neighborhood talent. After all, New Orleans is dripping with accomplished musicians and that notion matched Ounsworth's idea of making an album literally drenched in the sweat of the city's musical traditions. "You go into a bar and chances are pretty good that the person sitting next to you is a great musician," Ounsworth tells Spinner. "That said, we did kind of hone in on some of the individuals who have proven themselves over the years."

That's one way of saying it. Ounsworth landed none other than a grandfather of N'awlins funk, George Porter, Jr. of the Meters on bass, the city's current drummer-in-residence Stanton Moore of Galactic and organist about town, Robert Walter of the Greyboy Allstars. All three musicians are virtually tourist attractions in New Orleans; when they're not on tour with their various bands, they play out in local venues regularly, sometimes even two or three times a night, in a number of side-projects, combos and one-offs.

In fact, that's how Ounsworth discovered Moore. He was familiar with Moore's work in Galactic but not enough to recognize him by face. After being impressed by what he thought was just some drummer playing in a jazz combo at a local haunt, Ounsworth mentioned him to Berlin as a candidate. "I was like, 'Man, this drummer is great!" remembers Ounsworth. "He plays actually a lot like a friend of mine whose drumming I really admire in Elvis Perkins In Dearland, Nick Kinsey." Berlin agreed on the choice, and then pointed out that the unknown drummer in question was none other than "Stanton Moore of Galactic fame."

And yet, Ounsworth says, the musicians were just as eager to step outside their box as Ounsworth was his. "It's almost like a lot of musicians could potentially take New Orleans for granted, in terms of how much talent there is there," he says. "I'm not one of them." The resulting album, 'Mo Beauty,' will be available on Anti- Records beginning October 20th.